ComputerGeek6425:

USB is good for just plain, old file transfers.  There really isn't much special.  When using a USB your video quality won't be great.  Firewire, however, is specifically made to transfer large files fast.  I personally use Firewire to becuase of the speed and the great quality.  Although, the ultimate decision is what camera you are using and what is the purpose of the video.  If you are just uploading the video to the web, I would use USB, so you don't have to worry about quality reducing.  If you're making a DVD for family/friends, etc. I would use Firewire.  Once again, a better quality.

Hope this helps!

1. Both USB and firewire knows absolutely nothing about video at all - it can neither enhance not degrade any video signal being transferred over the interface

2. "I personally use Firewire to because of the speed and the great quality" - what speed? - firewire capture happens at exactly 3.5M/s .............. since you can "capture" at real-time only (using Studio anyway) what possible speed advantage can you experience? ....................... and "quality"? - the DV cam or video converter box determines what codec is used for compression - you have no influence on what the DV cam is doing or the converter box is doing other than to ask it to stream data over an interface - be that USB or firewire. Example - my USB710 connects to the PC via a USB cable yet I can connect a DV cam to the USB710 using a firewire cable and capture on the PC using the USB cable with no loss of "quality" of the DVcam's material.

3. Most all current cams consumer have USB interfaces - lately, only the more expensive ones have firewire/DV connectivity ....................... you may actually be limited in choice by that factor alone. There is absolutely no difference between the same DV material coming off of eg a Panasonic GS59 whether you use its USB or DV connector to stream video material to the PC with - DV compression characteristics are defined by the encoder at the time of recording on the camera.